Comments on: Is Medicare Advantage the same as Medigap?http://www.wggb.com/2013/10/15/is-medicare-advantage-the-same-as-medigap/
People You Know, News You Can TrustFri, 20 Mar 2015 13:20:14 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1By: DennisByronhttp://www.wggb.com/2013/10/15/is-medicare-advantage-the-same-as-medigap/#comment-70507
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 11:00:54 +0000http://www.wggb.com/2013/10/15/is-medicare-advantage-the-same-as-medigap/#comment-70507For the second day in a row, this TV station is putting out grossly misleading information about Medicare. Clearly whomever runs this operation is a foot soldier in President Obama’s War on Seniors.

Public Part C Medicare Advantage health plans and private Medigap insurance policies are more alike than they are different. They represent the two choices you have to supplement Original Medicare if you are not one of the seniors who get supplemental insurance from a former employer or union.

It is quite misleading to say that they are “in no way alike.” But they are different. The primary difference is that most public Part C Medicare Advantage plans are HMOs or similar networked insurance policies (also, they are capitated in insurance speak). Medigap, on the other hand, inherits the major feature of Original Medicare; it is not networked and allows you to go to any doctor that accepts Medicare (also it is fee for service in insurance speak)

The Democratic propagandist who wrote this article is trying to confuse us seniors with a lot of gobbledygook about how money flows around the Medicare payment system. Most of it is irrelevant. Some of it is misleading (there are private insurance companies in charge of Original Medicare also). One statement in this propaganda is outright untrue: the insurance company will not send you a bill for a copay under Part C. The doctor or hospital will.

Finally, and this is where this Massachusetts TV station is further screwing up seniors… apparently on purpose because it does it every day Almost none of what the article says about Medicare Advantage or Medigap prices and enrollment periods is true in Massachusetts. Again it is all wrong but it is most important to realize that almost one half of us seniors in Massachusetts who use Part C on our own can change the plan more than once a year. Many of you in Massachusetts are not locked into to just this time of year the way this article says. Check with your senior center to see how this works